Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna turned back Allaney Jia Doroy to barge into the five-player lead group after the sixth round of the 2021 Philippine Women’s Chess Championship at the PACE building in Quezon City yesterday.
The top-seeded, 24-year-old Frayna outwitted Doroy in the opening to gain a two-pawn advantage and leaned on her super endgame technique to translate it to a 91-move victory of an English showdown.
It sent the Army woman straight to the top, where she joined Kylen Joy Mordido, Marie Antoinette San Diego, Shania Mae Mendoza and Jan Jodilyn Fronda on identical four points.
And it took a while for Frayna to recover her wits after her title bid was derailed by a stunning opening round setback to 13-year-old wunderkind Ruelle Canino Saturday.
Frayna will have a chance to move up the standings even farther and stay on course to snare the champion’s prize worth P50,000 a berth to the Hanoi Southeast Asian Games in May next year if she could hurdle Francois Magpily in the seventh round that was being played at press time.
Mordido, who is tipped to become the country’s next WGM, drew with San Diego in 31 moves of an English Opening while Mendoza split the point with Marian Calimbo in 68 moves of a King’s Indian Defense.
Fronda, for her part, was on her way to beating Mariel Rinoa Sadey that would have catapulted her alone on top.
But the 2019 national champion couldn’t convert her pawn advantage into a win, allowing Sadey to escape with a 59-move standoff in their super-sharp Sicilian encounter.
It kept Sadey at No. 6 with three points, half a point atop Canino, Doroy and Bernadette Galas with 2.5 points.
Canino outlasted Magpily in 69 moves of a Pirc Defense while Galas smashed Lexie Grace Hernandez in 53 moves of a Reti Opening.
The event, which is backed by PSC chair Butch Ramirez, Chess Movement, Inc. chair Dr. Ariel Potot, PCSO general manager Royina Garma, Endgame Sports founder Atty. Cris Aspiras, POC president Bambol Tolentino, NCFP chief Butch Pichay and Atty. Roel Canobas, is staking a top purse worth P50,000 and a slot to the Hanoi Southeast Asian Games in May next year